They bought a sailboat in Turkey, sailed through the Mediterranean Sea and crossed the Atlantic. Stone is a Canadian citizen.

Ivanovna was eventually granted refugee status in Canada due to the persecution she would face in Russia as a lesbian.

For six years she has unsuccessfully sought Canadian citizenship.

Since arriving in Halifax in July, the couple said they have repeatedly applied for a refugee travel document for Ivanovna so that they could sail south this fall before winter freezes their boat into the Northwest Arm.

That application has been repeatedly rejected on technicalities, she said.

“They are obligated to give it to me,” she said.

The couple have been working with staff in Halifax MP Andy Fillmore’s office.

A staffer in Fillmore’s office confirmed Wednesday that they had been working to assist Ivanovna, but refused to comment further than to say that “things are progressing” with Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

For their part, Ivanovna and Stone say things need to progress faster.

They are reaching the end of the available sailing season, when the onslaught of late fall weather will make heading south dangerous.

So with or without the refugee travel document that would allow her safe entry into the American ports along the way, they will head south.

“We won’t give up on our dream,” said Ivanovna of the couple’s plan to sail the world together.